Novak Djokovic ‘really happy he has got a gold medal over Roger Federer’, claims former world No 1
Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs believes Novak Djokovic will be “really happy” he now has an Olympic gold medal in singles since it was a prize that eluded Roger Federer.
Sam Querrey, a former ATP world No 11, hailed Djokovic’s achievement of winning the Olympics as “amazing” given the Serbian made it clear it was his biggest goal for 2024.
Djokovic won his first gold medal at his fifth Olympics at the 2024 Paris Games by conquering Carlos Alcaraz in a high-level gold medal match on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The 24-time Grand Slam champion has now won every significant title in the sport.
The only medal Djokovic had previously won was the bronze he claimed on his Olympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Games.
The 37-year-old became only the third man after Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal to complete a career Golden Slam by winning all four majors and an Olympic gold in singles.
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Nadal also won a gold medal in doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics, while Andy Murray was a singles champion in back-to-back Games in 2012 and 2016.
Federer secured an Olympic gold in doubles in 2008, but he is now the only member of the Big Four not to win a singles gold.
The Swiss icon achieved his best Olympics result at the London 2012 Games, where he took the silver after losing to Murray in the gold medal match.
Speaking on Racquet’s Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Stubbs claimed Djokovic will be pleased to have surpassed his former rival Federer by winning a gold medal.
“He joins an exclusive club of gold medal champions in singles because Rafa [Nadal] won in singles and doubles, Steffi [Graf] of course did what we will probably never see [again] — winning all four Grand Slams and then winning a gold medal,” said the Australian.
“But Novak joins Andre Agassi, the likes of these players. Roger Federer is not even on that list. Although Roger won a gold medal in doubles, he never did this in singles so that’s something that I am sure Novak is really happy that he has got over Roger.”
Querrey, who won two of his 11 matches against Djokovic, lauded the tennis legend for fulfilling his goal after publicly sharing the importance of winning an Olympic gold medal.
“I feel like the entire year Novak was telling us his goal this year is to get a gold medal,” explained the American.
“And then to go out there and not have a great year in terms of Novak standard and get to the Olympics, through some of those tough matches on the way to the gold medal and then to actually get the gold medal, do that thing you’ve been telling people the whole year, ‘Hey this is the number one thing I want to accomplish’, was an amazing thing to see.”
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